There is already a great FAQ on these forums (found here: http://forum.eyewire.org/discussion/62/faq/p1), all about the game, the project, and aspects of playing. However, there tends to be a lot of questions asked by newer players who haven’t made their way to the forums yet. I wanted to post this abridged, player-made FAQ to address those questions in the form of a quick and easy link to post in chat. There are several players who play quite a lot who tend to be online when there is an influx of new folks, and while most of us don’t mind answering questions or otherwise helping where we can, it does get tedious after a while…and a link like this would be very helpful.
So, the following is a series of frequently asked questions by new players who are trying to get a good start in the game. If anyone has any additions, corrections, or suggestions, feel free to post a reply or get my attention in game chat (Ketta).
Hey…why am I not getting any points?!
If you’re not getting points, it’s probably because you’re in the tutorial. Once you’re finished with the tutorial, you’ll start to earn points (during the last 3 cubes of the tutorial, you’ll earn some points too).
Why isn’t the game telling me what percent I got right anymore?
Once you’re out of the tutorial, you’re working on cubes that are ‘unknown’. You are now tracing for real and helping Eyewire discover and finish different neurons. Thus, the game can’t tell you what you’ve done right or wrong directly, because even it doesn’t know for sure.
If the game can’t tell me what I did right or wrong, how does it know how to score my work?
Your work is checked against work done by others who have traced the same cube. Your score is based on how well it matches up, on how much volume you filled in, and a little bit on how much time you spent on the cube. The maximum you can get for time spent on a cube is 20 points, so the most important aspects are what tracing work you did and on volume.
Trailblazing? What the heck is THAT?
When you trailblaze a cube, that means you were the first to work on a cube and submit it. What’s really cool about trailblazing is that no matter how much work you did, you get 50 points. Plus, after other players have traced the same cube, you get the points you would have gotten for working on the cube normally.
WHOA!! I got a cube with a giant blob in it! But it’s taking forever to fill in…
Those are usually what the project team calls ‘cell bodies’. They’re big, round monstrosities that have a LOT of small bits to fill in but take a long time to complete. The general consensus from the team is to fill in just the outside edges (not the middle parts or anything that butts up against the sides of a cube), and submit that work. The team says that they’re working on teaching the AI to fill in the middle, and unless you REALLY want the points (which take a very long time), to not bother with the middle parts at all. If you’re worried about your accuracy, they’ve also said they’re making sure that submitting unfinished cell body cubes won’t hurt your accuracy.
What’s likely happening is that your work on those cubes simply didn’t compare well to what others did in the same cube. Don’t worry though, because with practice you’ll get better at seeing what needs to be added and what doesn’t. Your score mostly consists of how you compare to what other players have done and how much volume you fill in. There are videos done by the Eyewire team (link posted above) and you’re more than welcome to ask for advice in chat from fellow players.